Verizon Wireless had a very good Q2 2012 based on quarterly earnings reported today. The wireless unit generated $28.6 billion dollars, a 3.7 percent year over year increase.

Much of that growth was thanks to customers buying smartphones. For the first time in company history, more than half of subscribers own a smartphone. Smartphone penetration reached 50 percent in Q2 2012, up from 36 percent in 2011. Verizon sold 5.9 million smartphones in the quarter, 2.9 million of which were Android devices. That’s up from the 2.3 million sold during the same period last year.

The popularity of Android phones, or “Droids” as Verizon CFO Fran Shammo called them, continued the uptick in sales. About 2.5 million of the 2.9 million Android phones sold were LTE capable. The rollout of 4G LTE, which now covers 75 percent of the U.S. population, was another big win for the company. Available in more than 330 markets, Verizon has more LTE coverage than all other carriers combined. The carrier says it’s on track to have its current 3G network to have LTE coverage by this time next year.

During it’s earnings call, Verizon claimed that customers actually want their new Share Everything plans. While I’m sure there are some on large family plans who benefit, that’s unlikely to be the case for individual users. Still, Shammo said that response has been positive. (Keep in mind that these plans have only been available for less than a month, so there’s no real way to make realistic assertions on response.)

“Early feedback has been great and our customer adoption is tracking with our expectations. We are seeing a wide variety of customers and family share accounts opting into Share Everything, including existing smartphone customers with unlimited data plans.”